Wow, another PAX goes by and I’m still barely getting my voice back. But hey, it was well worth it. Oh, I didn’t get sick either! *crosses fingers*

I don’t want to rub it in or anything, but in case you didn’t get to go… you missed a ton of amazing stuff. From our custom PAX 2010 A30s to kick-ass Frag Doll parties to most importantly, Duke Nukem Forever.

Not only were we the Official Headset of PAX, we also made a very special PAX 2010 edition of our A30 Headset. Gotta admit, it was pretty sweet to see tons of PAX attendees walking around wearing them.

Our booth was smack dab in the middle of EA, 2K Games, Alienware, NVIDIA and Telltale Games. Definitely a good spot to be in, especially when we were setting up Thursday night and I spotted Duke Nukem posters on 2K’s booth. I thought to myself “No… This can’t be. This is some kind of joke.” The next day, the announcement goes out on the wire and I’m freaking out like that Nintendo 64 Christmas kid. Ok, not exactly but that’s how I felt on the inside.

Before you ask, I did play the game and it is exactly what I expected it to be. Over the top, ridiculous, and awesome with the best one-liners that gamers will be quoting for the next 10 years.

If you didn’t get to stop by our booth, you had the chance to try our headsets over at Ubisoft (Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, HAWX 2 and Outland), EA (especially the Dead Space 2 booth), Capcom, SEGA, HotHead, Machinima, Wizards of the Coast and Instant Action. And you missed your chances at winning bunches of custom Ubisoft and Machinima A30s. Gotta pay attention, especially at PAX East 2011!

Another PAX goes by and we can’t wait for the next one. Each year you see old friends, make new ones and all of the sudden, you miss everything and everyone. Gotta love it.

Till next time,

- ASTRO stanimal

B-B-B-B-B-Balls of steel.

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Attention all ASTRO enthusiasts,

PAX 2010 is opening tomorrow morning to thousands of the most passionate gamers in the world and ASTRO Gaming will be there in full force. Yes, you’ll see our sweet lookin’ booth staffed with the exhilarating ASTRO stanimal (me!), ASTRO Xariun, our awesome support team and of course the always lovely ASTRO girls.

In addition to being the official headset provider of PAX, we’re bringing along a PAX exclusive which we are SO happy to announce. ASTRO Gaming and the Penny Arcade team have brought their brilliant minds together to bring you something special that you will absolutely love.

Available only this weekend and at the Penny Arcade booth, we brought with us 400 Special Edition ASTRO A30 headsets with speaker tags featuring signature artwork of Penny Arcade’s Gabe and Tycho characters for $99. You can get a sneak peak as to how freakin’ cool they look right above.

“Each year we try to create one special item for the attendees, and we’re super happy that Astro agreed to do these with us.” says the enigmatic Robert Khoo, President of Operations and Business Development of Penny Arcade.

It doesn’t stop there. You’ll be able to try out ASTRO A30 and A40 headsets at the following booths and games:

Ubisoft: Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, HAWX 2 and Outland
Electronic Arts: Dragon Age 2, Dead Space 2, Darkspore, and Need for Speed Hot Pursuit
HotHead: DeathSpank 2
Wizards of the Coast: Magic the Gathering: Duals of the Planeswalkers
SEGA: Vanquish
Capcom: Okamiden, Ghost Trick
Machinima: Machinima’s Tournament Setup
Gunnar Optiks: 2v2 Gaming Setup
Instant Action: Instant Jam

Looking to maybe win some ASTRO Gaming A30 headsets/audio systems? Giveaways will be happening here:

Ubisoft:

- 3x Assassin’s Creed A30 Audio Systems in their ACB tournament
- 3x HAWX 2 A30 Audio Systems for their HAWX 2 tournament
- 3x Assassin’s Creed A30 Audio Systems for their ACB cosplay contest

Machinima:

- 3x Machinima Respawn A30 Audio Systems in their tournament

Dtoid Live Panel (Saturday, 10:30AM at the Unicorn Theater)

- 3x Dtoid A30 Audio Systems

OnLive

- 3x OnLive A30 Headsets

Wow, long-ass blog post. I’ll sum it up quickly. PAX Prime 2010 will be totally amazing and we’re gonna make it just a little bit more amazing. Who are we kidding? A lot more.

Oh, and be sure to stop by the booth and say hi to us! We like that stuff.

- ASTRO stanimal

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It seems these days that each event brings new twists and turns on the circuit as upsets are in no short supply when it comes to Halo 3. Many of the top rated teams were taken aback by amateur teams still clawing at the opportunity to make a name for themselves. With Halo 3 winding down and Halo Reach quickly approaching the circuit, there is a new energy radiating from the players, and many are eager to start something new. However, one of the resounding themes I heard as I was talking to different pro players over the weekend is that there needs to be a focus from all of the players on finishing out the season with the same level of passion for Halo 3 that was there two years ago. Final Boss proved over this very special weekend that same level of passion still courses through them as they dominated the circuit, reclaiming the status that goes along with their team name.

FB definitely had an agenda walking into this event: dethroning Instinct in their attempt to take home their third consecutive championship. Instinct pushed back, and fought a great battle in the finals, but in the end it just wasn’t quite enough. This loss for Instinct will only continue to add fuel to the rivalry, and the next event in DC is sure to be one to watch as these teams both have something to prove.

For the first time since it’s addition to the pro circuit, I kept hearing a consistent and extraordinarily high level of cheering coming from the Tekken stage. Apparently those guys from Atlanta are abundantly proud of their Tekken skills and were fervently cheering each other on throughout the weekend. It created quite the spectacle, and brought many of the event attendees who were there for some of the other games over to check out the action.

I’d say that the celebration for the 50th MLG Event in Raleigh this past weekend was an overwhelming success. Each of the headline games had a great crowd there participating and supporting, highlighting that this 50th event definitely won’t be the last milestone the MLG celebrates. With chart breaking stream views across the board, many of you who couldn’t attend also helped to make this an event to remember. See you all in DC!

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This weekend’s tournament at Raleigh happens to be a very special event for Major League Gaming. They get to check off a pretty big milestone in their history, their 50th event. To help them celebrate the special occasion, we are bringing a plethora of fun stuff to this event for the first time:

Attendees to the MLG Raleigh event this weekend will get the opportunity to check out the new MLG A30 Audio System, as well as the BXR Edition A40 Audio System. Both of which, have never previously been able to be purchased at any live event. You’ll get a chance to try and compare the two different headsets head to head at our 2v2 station featuring Halo 3, Modern Warfare 2, and Transformers: War for Cybertron throughout the weekend.

As many of you know, for each event, we do a limited collectors run of event specific speaker tags. We’ll have the Raleigh event tags on both black and white speaker tags, but we also cooked up another super collectible set to celebrate this milestone. For the 50th event, we did a batch of 50 A40 speaker tag sets featuring the special 50th event logo. Again, we only printed 50 of these commemorative sets, and fully expect them to sell out quickly. Be sure to come swing by the booth early if you’ll be at the show.

Additionally, we brought back the A40 MLG Pro Team Speaker Tag sets from some of the top teams. Show your support for your favorites in style as we’ll have limited quantities of tags from: Str8 Rippin’, Final Boss, Instinct, Carbon, Believe the Hype, and Status Quo.

We somehow also managed to pull the last few MLG Mission Bags from our inventory for this event as well. These are stocked out online, but we’ll have a few available at the ASTRO Booth for those of you that make the journey to the “City of Oaks”. Did you know Raleigh is jam packed with Oak trees? We didn’t until we got here.

Did I mention that we’re also treating every event attendee like a pro player? That’s right… for those of you attending the event(or know someone that is), you’ll also get to score these new headsets at the same discounted prices that the pros get. That’s a rock solid 20% discount from our regular prices.

On a side note, during setup we also had a chance to scope out the Sony booth which will be giving 3D Killzone 3 demos all weekend. In a word: amazing. I’ll bet you wish you would have bought that spectator pass now eh?

-W

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Even though this was only my second Comic-Con (SDCC), I leave feeling like a true veteran. A grizzled survivor of one of the most grueling conventions this word has to offer.

You may walk away exhausted, broke, sick, or smelling like that one dude who was in some cosplay outfit he shouldn’t have been in.

Doesn’t matter. It’s worth it every freaking year.

I’ll start with all of the amazing gaming stuff that was happening at SDCC. The gaming portion pretty much tripled in size since last year with all the major players where in town. Xbox and Sony both had a presence along with all the major publishers like Ubisoft, CAPCOM, Konami, Activision, EA, and probably a few more that I can’t think of right now.

Ubisoft’s booth was showing off the multiplayer portion of Assassins Creed Brotherhood (ACB). Naturally, they were using our A30 Audio Systems (with custom ACB speaker tags) all daisy-chained so everyone can talk trash and get absolutely wrecked by one of the Frag Dolls. Not exactly your typical multiplayer, lots of being all tricky and sneaking around. Definitely a stabbingly good time.

Oh, and don’t forget to pick up Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Video Game when it comes out later in August. I don’t need to tell you why. Anything Scott Pilgrim related is officially awesome by default.

CAPCOM’s booth was nothing short of bad-ass. They had a freaking FIGHTING RING converted into a stage for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and all their live podcasting (where if you’re lucky, you’ll get to hear my sexy Russian accent). They were also rolling custom A30s for their DS titles Ghost Trick and Okamiden which are chock-full of all that Japanese game-making prowess. Totally psyched for Dead Rising 2, nothing like killing zombies with chainsaws duct-taped to a paddle. amirite?!

What else was there at SDCC? Panels for EVERYTHING. You name it. Your favorite games, TV shows, and movies all had 3 hour lines just to get in. For example, I waited in line for the Dead Space 2 panel only to have it hit max capacity like 20 people in front of me. Props to Visceral Studios for getting their franchise to that level of popularity but boo at you for making me miss the panel. >:( Meh, I’m sure I’ll be first in line at the game’s midnight release anyhow.

Just a heads up, always get in line very, very early if you ever want to see a panel at Comic-Con.

Now also be sure to bring lots of cash because you’ll want to buy just about everything there. Between totally sweet t-shirts from companies like GAMA-GO, and Upper Playground, your favorite webcomics will be selling all sorts of fun stuff too. Even custom sketches! Love those things.

Before I lose you entirely, I want to give a shout out to our magnificent SDCC partners Ubisoft, the Frag Dolls, CAPCOM, and Konami. And more shout outs to our friends at HP, Robert, Jerry, Mike and the rest of the Penny Arcade crew, the guys from Red vs. Blue, Brian O’Malley for making one of the best comics ever I’ve ever read (Scott Pilgrim), Edgar Wright for turning that comic into one of the best movies I’ve ever seen (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), and to all the many friends of mine that I saw.

Awe, wasn’t that all cute? Totally was. Now go look at our Facebook photo album of all the pics I took.

- ASTRO stanimal

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One of the amazing things about the MLG/Doritos Combine events is the mix of fresh energy and excitement that all of these new players bring when they walk in the doors. For many of the participants, the combine events are their first experience into the world of Major League Gaming.

It’s easy to forget what your first event feels like a few years into it. The wonder, excitement, and anticipation that overwhelms you when you take that first step into the venue and begin to absorb the experience as you realize exactly where you are: surrounded by people who share your passion. It’s refreshing to watch the faces of the “fresh meat” as they quickly adjust to life in the pits, and realize that they aren’t on Xbox Live anymore. Many players crack under the new pressures that being at a live event brings, and it gives the opportunity for some to shine.

The first day was filled with the Free-For-All(FFA) competition. This focuses on the lone wolf style of play, and gives the opportunity for players to show off their raw talent against other players. FFA play can get a bit messy and opportunistic, but it is seriously fun to watch. Much like college sports recruiters, some of the MLG pro players attend the event to watch for impressive new talent. As the scouts observed players doing something skillful throughout the day, they received a notation. Those players who received those notations were given a chance to sit down before the pros and get observed with some 1:1 time. As the night went on, and players dwindled, familiar faces began to emerge victorious such as Adrenaline, Amish Acorns, and Str8 Sick. In the end it was Amish Acorns that walked away the winner once again proving that he’s going to continue to be a force to reckoned with at the main events.

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We’re back! Well, sort of. I’m back at San Diego Comic-Con 2010 (SDCC) and this time, I brought some ASTRO goodness with me to hook up our favorite/epically astonishing partners like Ubisoft, CAPCOM, and Konami.

You may remember last year when I graced the floors of the San Diego Convention Center at last year’s SDCC. There I gushed about all the upcoming games, the olfactory offenses (that means bad smells), and the craziness of it all. Probably won’t be too different this year but we’ll see in the recap coming soon.

First thing that’s new this year is that ASTRO has a bit of a presence at SDCC 2010! No, no booth yet but we got some sweet custom A30s setup at the following booths:

- Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood multiplayer setup and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Video Game (booth #4245)
- CAPCOM’s Okamiden and Ghost Trick stations as well as their Cap-Community video-cast (booth #4844)
- Konami’s MGS: Peace Walker stations (booth #3713)

We also have giveaways of SDCC exclusive A30s here:

- Daily raffle for Assassin’s Creed A30 Audio Systems, 1 each day!
- Raffles for BASARA A30 Audio Systems, signed by the producer!

Stay tuned to my jealousy-inducing updates from our Facebook page and Twitter. Now only if I can summon the strength to stand in line for hours for the panels… (-10 to patience)

Wish me luck yo,

- ASTRO stanimal

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It’s the following Monday and I’m still recovering from E3 2010. That may just give you an idea of the insanity that was my first E3 ever. Mr. Stanimal’s first E3? You don’t say…

It’s the truth folks. For years I’d watch from the sidelines on all the cool announcements, sick booths, and wish I was at all the ridiculous parties. This year, it all finally happened.

I was also incredibly lucky for my first E3 to be so freakin’ full of crazy launches, announcements, and demos. I mean, we got the Kinect (formerly Natal), the Nintendo 3DS and the Playstation Move just to name a few. AND we got the opportunity to play each of them. Well, I didn’t get to play the 3DS only because of the 4 hour lines but trust me, I was very tempted. The thought of a 3DS version of Tetris warms my Russian gamer soul.

That’s actually one of my favorite things from E3 that I’m really looking forward to. All my media buddies that got to see it said it was nothing short of magic. To incorrectly quote one of them, “It was like magic was real”. Way to hype it up guys, jeez.

Oh, and before you ask if I like the Kinect or Move better, probably going to have to go with the Kinect on this one. Not to come off as an Xbox fanboy, but I like the fact that I don’t even need a controller anymore. Less clutter, less to charge, and I feel like I’m in Minority Report when I’m browsing the dashboard. Tell me that’s not bad-ass. I dare you.

As for the games, I’m psyched for Dead Space 2 because it’s a scary-ass game that comes with a very well written universe that sucked me right in. Occasionally dismembered my character too. Runner ups include Halo: Reach (SPACE FIGHTS), Medal of Honor, Vanquish, Ghost Recon Future Soldier and Just Dance 2.

ASTRO Xarion rocked the show floor with me and had this to add:

It’s a tough call, but I’d have to say that the one thing I am most excited about from E3 is definitely the rework of Splatterhouse by Namco Bandai. I have fond memories of the original on the TurboGrafx-16 that my cousin owned and would let me play when I went to visit. I lit up like I was 12 again when I saw this new version being shown in the expo hall. I’m generally not a huge horror fan(obviously the Evil Dead series isn’t part of that statement), but this game looks amazing. Combine super creepy with brutal violence and excessive gore and you can count me in. It may not have been the game with the best graphics ever at the show, but it’s going to be a blast to play. Who doesn’t want to tear apart hordes of humanoid abominations and undead limb by limb, eviscerate, and behead them with your hands? I’m going to be so ready for the zombie apocalypse.

Ok, that’s a long post already. E3 2010 was awesome. Shoutouts to our friends at SEGA, Ubisoft, EA, the Frag Dolls, Konami, Origin PCs, Gunnar, and all the other amazing people we hung out with.

Oh, and check out our Facebook for pics from the event here.

Cheers guys,

- ASTRO stanimal

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A brave and daring crew from ASTRO Gaming will be at E3 2010 in Los Angeles, California from June 15th through the 17th to help some of the top game publishers make sure their games sound nothing short of amazing.

That and bunches of meetings of course, but that’s not terribly exciting. What is exciting is the where we’ll be at the E3 exhibition floor!

Check it out:

Konami – Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker A30’s on PSP game kiosks

IGN/Sprint Booth – In front of the South Hall featuring A30 Audio Systems for Transformers: War for Cybertron mutiplayer and Battlefield: Bad Company 2′s upcoming Onslaught Mode

EA – A30 Audio Systems at the Medal of Honor media demo room

SEGA – A30 Audio Systems on all Vanquish game kiosks

G4TV Booth – All high-end Origin PC’s in the booth feature A30 headsets

Capcom – The Capcom Community Team will be using A30’s to live stream E3 to their community at:

http://www.capcom-unity.com/

Giveaways:

Konami – On-going sweepstakes for MGS:PW A30’s and Scout backpacks

OnLive – Daily sweepstakes for custom OnLive A30’s and Scout backpacks

EA – Daily sweepstakes for custom Crysis 2 A30 Audio Systems

We may not have a crazy two-story booth with epilepsy inducing light shows and crazy trapeze stuff but we’re there. We’re SO there.

For random updates on the cool stuff at E3, follow us on Twitter (@ASTROGaming)

- ASTRO stanimal

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MLG Columbus has been one of the most entertaining events the past two years both in and out of the convention center. The Greater Columbus Convention Center is located in the heart of Columbus as well as the OSU campus. The venue is surrounded by restaurants, shops, and a healthy array of things to do in the evenings after the event doors close. If you ever find yourself in Columbus, you won’t need to wander far to find some entertainment.

Inside the venue, we welcomed back the Halo 3, Tekken 6, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and WoW competitions to the event. The WoW community was excited to be back at the main events and ready to make some noise. With the help of the ASTRO Gaming MixAmp, the WoW broadcast team was able to add the ASTRO sponsored “Listen In” segments to the broadcast for the first time. This has been a feature that the Halo community has had for the past few years, which allows at home viewers to listen to the team chat audio during the broadcast. If you haven’t heard this feature yet, it’s a great way to learn callouts and team tactics from the pros.

Congrats go out to Team Instinct for their back-to-back event wins for Halo 3. The weekend was a hard fought battle for many of the attending teams, with some high profile upsets, culminating in a second encounter between Instinct and Final Boss in the finals on championship Sunday. FB made a great push in the finals, and kept each nail biting round close with nearly every kill resulting in an energetic outburst from the crowd. In the end Instinct proved that their win in Orlando was no fluke, and that they will continue to be a force to be reckoned with.

We would also like to send out a special acknowledgement to Cloud, who enters a short list of MLG Pros who have won three events in a row.

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